Writing - LPAT Paper 2
LPAT Paper 2 - Writing assesses whether you can produce accurate, well-organised English for the purposes a teacher actually writes for: letters to parents, reports to management, articles, proposals and discursive essays. You respond to two prompts, each of which specifies a role, an audience and a set of content points.
Treat the prompt as a contract
- Role and audience: a letter to parents is not a memo to colleagues; the relationship governs tone and how much explanation is needed.
- Content points: every bullet in the prompt must be covered explicitly. A missing point caps the content score however elegant the prose.
- Genre features: reports need a title and headings; letters need salutation and closing; articles need a title and an engaging opening.
- Register: formal reports avoid contractions and slang; letters to parents are polite but plain.
Organise for the reader
- State the purpose in the first two sentences.
- One idea per paragraph, signalled by a topic sentence.
- Use referencing ("this proposal", "such measures") and connectors to link sentences, not just "Firstly/Secondly".
- End with an action: a recommendation, a request or a clear conclusion.
Accuracy and range
Marks reward control as well as ambition: sentence boundaries, subject–verb agreement, articles, tense consistency and prepositions. Range means complex sentences, nominalisation and precise verbs, used without obscuring meaning.
Worked example
Prompt: a report to the Principal recommending changes to the morning reading scheme; points include falling attendance, survey findings and two recommendations. A strong opening paragraph: "Attendance at the morning reading session has fallen to 55% this term. A survey of 120 students identified two barriers: a shortage of suitable books and a clash with the school bus schedule. It is therefore recommended that the book collection be refreshed and that the session begin ten minutes later." Reasoning: the topic sentence states the problem with data; evidence follows; nominalisation ("Attendance ... has fallen") and impersonal recommendation structures create the objective tone a report requires.
Traps
- Writing a list of content points without linking them into an argument.
- Ignoring the audience and using the wrong register.
- Long introductions that delay the purpose.
- Deploying memorised phrases that do not fit the task.
- Errors in basic accuracy undercutting otherwise good ideas.